The Mary Day Nursery and Children's Hospital, founded in 1891 by a group headed by Mary Y. Raymond, has evolved into one of the largest institutions of its kind in the country. No longer, however, is the emphasis on the "day care" of children of working mothers, but rather on the care of sick children coming from 17 counties in this part of Ohio.

To accommodate the steadily increasing demands for hospitalization of children, a completely new building was opened at the corner of Buchtel Avenue and Bowery Street in 1928. This replaced the home given by Colonel Perkins, which was located at Buchtel and High Streets [today site of a parking deck.]. Further demands for service caused the erection of an addition to the main building in 1948.

Also added at that time was an apartment house for student nurses. The present valuation of buildings and equipment is well over $2,000,000.

The average daily number of patients exceeds 130 and with over 300 paid employees the annual expenses exceed $1,000,000.

All diseases of children are treated at Akron Children's Hospital by over 300 physicians in the community. The hospital trains student nurses, doctors, laboratory technicians, x-ray technicians, medical stenographers, student dieticians and many other types of specialized personnel who, in many cases, go elsewhere to add to the steadily increasing supply of people trained to care for sick and injured.

In the last two years (c.1950,) the number of patients being treated increased by 18%. In the last ten years the increase has been 100%o.

An aggressive policy of development of new techniques and complete utilization of all the recent remarkable developments in medicine promise a bright future for this local institution.

 

Akron and Summit County, Karl H. Grismer. Summit County Historical Society, Akron, Ohio, c. 1950. P 606